Jet and Droy couldn't have looked more aghast if Levy had told them that she was actually a daemon wearing human flesh.

"By yourself?" Said Jet, concern clearly etched over his features. Levy had decided that being bold was the best course of action here.

"Mm. It's not too far away, and it's just helping an alchemist decode some instructions. The pay is good, though, and I've gotta work through my back rent." She shuddered briefly, remembering the sum still to go. Jet reached over and took the flier out of her hands, examining it. He almost looked like he was disappointed that he couldn't find anything suspicious about it.

Levy went on. "There's a whole bunch of small jobs if you want something to do while I'm gone." She gestured towards the board. "It'll be good to make a bit extra."

Droy smiled at her. "If you promise to be safe, I'll promise to lose a stone by the time you're back."

"It's a deal," beamed Levy. Jet rose, towering over her.

"I want to do something before you go," he said, "so why don't you go and tell Gajeel you're leaving?"

"Eh? Why Gajeel?" She said, flushing like a schoolgirl. Jet smirked and walked away.

"A solo mission?" Questioned Gajeel with a mouthful of nails. "Will you be alright?" It was unusual for Gajeel to show concern for anyone and Levy flushed again. Why? Why only about him?

"I'll be fine," she replied, a little more angrily than she intended. "I'm not a little glass figurine, you know." To her surprise Gajeel laughed.

"I know that!" He said scornfully. "But a little extra muscle never hurt anyone."

"I don't think I want you bumbling around an alchemy lab," she said, thinking rather much of a bull in a china shop. "And I don't see any potential for outside interference."

"Does anyone?" The slayer asked sarcastically. Before Levy could reply, Jet walked over and thrust something into her hands. It was one of Warren's telepathy cards.

"Now you can call us if you need help," he said.

"Eh? But I've never needed one before!"

"Good idea, flat foot!" Said Gajeel heartily. "Makes me feel a lot better!"

"But I…," she replied clumsily. Jet reached down and moved her chin so that she was looking up at him.

"What changed was seven years," he said sadly. "Surely you'll do us this favour so that we don't worry."

She smiled a little morosely. "OK Jet, I understand."

She sat on the train reading a book she'd bought recently. With her second origin, she was up to using x60 wind reading glasses and quickly finished it. She hoped it might prove useful for this mission, as it was on ancient alchemical formulae. It was quite an interesting subject.

She carried her usual large bag full of books on her lap, as she'd forgotten that she couldn't reach the overhead compartment by herself. That had been a little embarrassing.

The train was quite busy and at the next station a large, burly man sat next to her. He was wearing jeans and a vest, revealing his muscular arms. His head was shaven save for a goatee, and he had the expression of a bruiser. His shoulder had a guild stamp, but she didn't recognize it. He was not the sort of person she would voluntarily sit next to.

"What'cha readin' little girl?" He asked in a deep, menacing voice. In truth, Levy wasn't intimidated. They were on a crowded train, and if he did anything untoward, he'd be sucking a 'Shock'. She dealt with him as she dealt with most people; with boundless enthusiasm.

"Alfredo Yu's A History of Alchemy. It's really quite good! Have you read it?" She beamed up at him. He made a dismissive noise, seemingly taken aback by her forthrightness.

"Readin's fer sissies."

"Oh, that's not true! Here, would you like this?" She reached into her bag and proffered a collection of short stories. "It's lots of little books, so it's good for beginners! I'm sure you'll find one that you'll like!"

Now he looked shaken, as if he didn't understand how someone could be so nice, particularly when he'd come in with such a bad mood. "Um…thank you." He took the book but didn't open it.

"I'm Levy! A Fairy Tail mage!" She twisted in her seat to show off her guild stamp on her shoulder blade. "Who are you?"

"Fairy Tail…," he stammered, suddenly looking like he'd got in over his head. The image of Natsu beating Sting and Rogue was in his mind. "I'm Akaryu, from Red Chimera." Levy hadn't heard of the guild, but there were lots and lots of tiny guilds over the world.

"Let's be friends, okay?" She winked.

"Y-yeah," he had stammered before falling into silence.

She got off the train at the same stop Akaryu did and bid him a hearty goodbye. He made a promise to try reading the book she'd given him and went on his way.

Walking around, she finally found the alchemist's shop and knocked on the door. As she waited, she noticed the runic defences around the building. Nothing like Frieds, but it would reinforce the walls considerably. It was a common practice for an alchemist, to stop a failed experiment from taking a chunk out of the street.

A wizened old man opened the door. "Oh my, are you from Fairy Tail? You're so…young!" Levy had been braced for a 'short' and breathed in relief.

"I'm Levy, Levy McGarden!"

"Greetings, I'm Albert Muller, pleased to meet you. Do come in! You must be tired! Can I make you a spot of tea?" He bustled her inside and the place immediately lit up Levy's face like a little child. There were half a dozen tables all groaning under the weight of multiple experiments – flasks and beakers, multi-coloured liquids, it was like a dream.

He led her over to a table buried under a slew of books and scrolls. He gestured to some documents.

"I think these are important to my research. They're in ancient Hylian, and I've been trying to decipher them myself – I'm something of a linguist myself, but there's something I can't quite make out – ah, but I'm rambling. Here, have a quick look yourself, see if you can see what I mean."

Levy sat down and began to read while Albert went and made her a cup of tea. By the time he returned she gratefully accepted it. "I think I see what you mean, it's definitely Hylian, but the grammar syntax is wrong for some reason."

"My, you are a bright young thing!" He sounded pleased. "It took me a long time to figure that out!"

She smiled, and sorted through her bag, taking a book out and opening it. "Now if I remember correctly, there was a period in Hylia when the King ordered all military documents to be encoded. I think that's why this is odd. If I can just find the encryption sequence…"

"So erudite! I should have called Fairy Tail sooner. Silly old fool like me trying to do this by myself."

A little while later, Levy had finished. She frowned as she read over the translated script. It seemed to detail a binding ritual, of sealing something alive within something inanimate.

"You're trying to put souls in objects?" She asked, a little worried.

"What? No!" He picked a couple of items off a shelf and returned to her. One was a little doll, like a wooden mannequin, and the other was a smooth, oval crystal. "This is an animation lacryma," he stated proudly. "What I'm trying to do is find a way to bind the property of the crystal to the doll. I'm trying to make toys."

He was beaming, and Levy's face lit up. "So if you could, the doll could move by itself?"

He nodded. "I need to work on the awareness of it, to get it to work better to its surroundings, but in theory, yes. The problem is that it doesn't register the doll as part of it. Part of my research is to make a conductive material that can be attuned to the lacryma and receive the motion enabling properties."

"Oh, it's so cool!" Levy gushed. "I always wished my dolls could move and…," she trailed off embarrassed, but Albert smiled.

"It's always good to retain the inner child," he said happily.

After that, he had shown Levy around his lab. His specialty was trying to make lacryma as pure as possible, without flaws. They were all small scale, but he had some fine craftsmanship. He had several elemental lacryma. She gingerly avoided the thunder lacryma, remembering her time with Shadow Cobra. Then there was Orga – she was beginning to share Lily's fear of lightning.

She had suddenly panicked when she realized that night had fallen and she hadn't found an inn, but Albert kindly offered to let her sleep on the sofa in his basement. Apparently the ground floor was all labs, and the top floor was his living space. The basement was full of clutter, but there was a sofa crammed in there too, and for someone as petite as Levy, it was comfortable enough.

She fell asleep quickly enough, but woke up in the early hours, unable to fall asleep again. She turned on the light and began looking through some of the clutter in the room, reasoning that he wouldn't have let her sleep there if it was a secret. She found some old photos of him standing with a woman and a young boy of about ten. She smiled sadly, guessing the woman, his wife, had passed away. She wondered about the son. Albert was quite old; he might have outlived him too. The son would be fifty? Sixty? It was hard to say.

She sighed and continued to sift through the junk. At was quite a while before she noticed the door. It was heavy and iron. She stood there looking at it. A part of her said that it would be rude to trespass. Another said that if it was secret, he'd have locked it or forbidden it. Another said; it's a door – open it.

Goddamn my curiosity, she thought.

She tried the handle, and it wasn't locked. It was so heavy though, that she had to press her shoulder against it. There was a light switch and she flicked it. As the dim lights illuminated the room, she focussed on the pride of place.

There was a suit of armour, seemingly made entirely out of pure thunder lacryma. It was on a heavy iron mannequin. The tables and walls were lined with weaponry, all of the blades made out of that same pure lacryma; fire, wind, thunder…

She wondered what this was. The room was old, and didn't appear to have been used in a long time. Maybe he manufactured weaponry before retiring? The more she thought about it, the less sinister it seemed. There were plenty of blacksmiths making powerful weapons, just ask Erza about it.

She went over to the armour and gently, touched the helmet. It didn't shock her, so she reached up and took it off, stretching high to do so. She handled it and couldn't help but admire the artwork in its design. Knowing it to be silly, she placed it upon her own head. It was incredibly loose and heavy, designed for a man much larger than her.

"Solid Script: Mirror," she whispered. She admired herself in the word, laughing at the silliness of it. As she tried to take it off, she stumbled and the heavy weight sent her to the floor. As she rubbed her sore bottom, the helmet skittered along the floor, making a dreadful racket.

Lights went on upstairs and she heard footsteps. "Levy dear, are you okay down there?" Albert appeared wearing a nightgown.

"Ah, I'm so sorry, I couldn't sleep and I…," she stopped as he laughed.

"Far be it from me to stifle a clever girl's curiosity," he said, eyes twinkling. "I'm afraid this awful nonsense is the stuff I made in my youth to make a living. Lacryma weapons sell well, but the armour never caught on." He picked up the helmet, smiling sadly. "Shame, I did love it so."

He was deep in thought for a minute. "If you're from Fairy Tail, you must know of Erza."

"Yes, she's one of our most famous mages," Levy replied.

"The armours she wears, such as the lightning or flame empress armours are much more refined versions of this, much lighter and more flexible. This is stronger, but the weight makes it unusable for general combat." He smiled suddenly. "She bought one of my swords once. I was so proud that such a famous mage deemed it worthy."

He seemed so sad, like he missed his past life, though he had said that making weapons was nonsense earlier. Toys seemed to suit the gentle man a…lot…more. Crap, thought Levy, thought processes clicking into place.

"When did your son die, Albert?"

He didn't seem surprised by the question. "He was twelve. There was a fight between rival guilds and he got caught up in it. He was an innocent bystander." His voice was terribly sad, but it was an old wound. "I got into toys for his memory. I wanted to make the world a happier place, not one filled with violence."

Suddenly, a sceptical part of Levy's brain flared. The timelines didn't match up. Erza was only twenty, and she bought the sword when she was already famous, so within the last five years? But the photo of his son had shown the man at least a decade or two younger. Maybe he kept swords that he'd made but not sold?

Wait.

Upstairs he was still working on refining pure elemental lacryma. But this armour, supposedly old, was pure. In fact, it looked flawless.

Too heavy for a human to wield.

Implanting animation lacryma.

No.

Nonononono.

Levy suddenly took a step backwards, away from Albert. He very suddenly looked like a different person in her eyes. He turned to look at her, puzzled. As he registered her expression, he sighed. "Damn. I was hoping that we could avoid this. Maybe you're too clever for your own good."

Levy held up a hand. "Don't do this! I am a powerful mage!" Albert laughed.

"Silly girl, you must have noticed the runes around this building. They prevent any magic from being cast within these walls." Levy panicked and actually tried to fire Tachyon. Nothing came. Fire. Nothing. He advanced on her. Desperate, she swung at him. Despite his age and seeming frailty, he was much, much stronger than her, and easily overpowered her. Fists clubbed her head, and she fell onto the hard stone floor.

She scrabbled at her pocket, trying to retrieve the card Warren had given Jet. She got it into her hand and it briefly glowed, but then he was on her, driving his boots into her tiny frame. The card slipped from her fingers as she blacked out.

Her last thoughts were not again…

Back in his room, Warren stirred briefly. What was that? He raised himself upright and listened. No noises were forthcoming and he fell back into a peaceful sleep.